Sanctuary
by X-FlurryOfDancingFlames-X
Summary: Nobodies aren't supposed to exist, but they do. They aren't supposed to have a heart, but they are still capable of emotion. Perhaps Nobodies truly DON'T exist...Follows the Kh2 storyline to some extent. Some angst, mushy stuff later.


X-FlurryOfDancingFlames-X: Greetings, one and all! I am pleased to announce that my very first fic EVER is now available for everyone to read and laugh at my pathetic attempts to write something creative! HOORAY! This sad, sad little chapter of my life came about from me watching way too much Invader Zim, playing way too many video games, and eating way too many Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (YUMMY!), but, since you're already here, perhaps you'd like to read it? Andmaybe, just maybe, you'd like to leave me a little comment afterwards? I'd love to keep writing this useless nonsense (beats doing homework!), but it would bean even bigger waste if nobody wants to read it!

Yep, its an Axel / OC fic. I try to keep everybody in character, but occasionally I stray from the beaten path for my own sick amusement. XD

Rated for later chapters, which may/may not include hints of yaoi, colorful language, death, random references to really stupid movies, and tons and tons and tons ofEMO CRAP!So please, no flames! CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING!

Disclaimer: Oh, puh-leez! If I owned Kingdom Hearts, I wouldn't be here writing this, and my bed wouldn't be as neatly made as it is.

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Sanctuary

In the setting sun, the sea was dyed red and shimmered like fire, and on the golden expanse of sand before it, a girl of about sixteen (perhaps seventeen; it is difficult to tell) with shoulder-length raven-black hair was sprawled in the sun. Her opalescent tank-top sparkled beneath her lacey black shrug, and the embroidered flames winding up the legs of her black silk jeans danced and flickered in the sun. On her left, a CD player sat in the sand whirring softly, and the headphones wire disappeared somewhere beneath her voluminous hair; to her right, there was a small pile of colored pencils, one of which she twirled through her fingers as she stared intently at the open sketchbook before her with gleaming violet eyes.

"In you and I there's a new land,

Angels in flight,

In Sanctuary, my Sanctuary."

Over and over again; the CD player started the song for what had to be the thirtieth time today. In fact, it was the only song on the CD. Sarah didn't mind though: it was intentional. There were spare few songs that could be grouped with this one and not do it injustice. And besides, she didn't want to forget her dream before she was finished illustrating it, and this particular song kept it fresh in her mind.

"Where fears and lies melt away.

Music inside,

What's left of me? What's left of me now?"

Her colored pencils clinked together in the sand as the breeze washed over them, surrounding her in the salty smell of the sea and toying with her jaggedly-layered hair. Another beautiful sunset at the Twilight Town beach. Somewhere beyond her pencils, her friends Hayner and Pence were enjoying a rather rough game of volleyball. Sarah turned her music down just a little to listen to them argue over where the boundaries were and who scored how many points, a smile slowly creeping across her aquiline features. It was so nice here…she wanted to lay on this sunny beach forever…

A pair of sandals crunched over to her, and she looked up to see her other good friend Olette smiling down at her. Olette was the first one to talk to her when she came to Twilight Town, and her parents had, for the time being, sort of adopted Sarah, making Olette the closest thing she had to family right now. She was about the same age and height, with wavy chestnut hair that she was constantly trying to straighten so it would lay pin-straight like Sarah's (an impossible feat, but funny to watch), with bright green eyes and a sunny smile. Today she was wearing her favorite orange shirt with little white flowers and a pair of khaki Capri's, and a grin bigger than the Cheshire Cat's.

"What's the matter, Sarah? Afraid you'll get wet? C'mon, lets' go swimming!" Sarah turned back to her book.

"Maybe a little later. I want to get this picture done first." Olette flopped down onto the sand next to her.

"You had another dream about that place?"

"Yep."

"And the same guy was there?"

"Yep."

"Hmm…" Olette stared out to sea, silent in contemplation for a few moments.

"Maybe…maybe he was really important to you. Like, he's related to you, like your brother or something. Maybe you're starting to remember your home." Sarah sighed. She had no memories of who she was or where she came from, save right up until she stepped off of a train into the Sunset Plaza Station. Sure, there was that insatiable desire to know, that longing to find herself that kept her awake late at night, but then again…If she remembered, she might not be able to stay here, in this idyllic paradise, anymore, and she told Olette so.

"Oh, don't worry! Hayner, Pence, and I'd find some way to see you. We'd all go crazy with boredom if we didn't! And if we never see you again, who's going to set Seifer on fire the next time he bothers us?"

They both burst into laughter remembering it, officially dubbed "The Phoenix Incident." Seifer, the resident gang leader and bully, seemed to have a particular fondness for giving Hayner, Pence, Olette, and now Sarah, a hard time. Just last week, Hayner's mom complained that his room always smelled as if there was a fermenting corpse hidden somewhere beneath the mess that covered the "floor" (the likes of which no one had ever seen), so the gang had gone to the convenience store and soaked each other in Axe trying to pick out the best scent. They finally settled on "Phoenix" (cool name + smells great yum!), and were just headed back to Hayner's house when, lo and behold! There stood Seifer, right in their path and as nasty as ever. Sarah had steadily become quite irritated with Seifer and his posse, but the final straw was just then as he tried to steal her lucky charm: a silver lighter in the shape of an upside-down heart with little chunks taken out of it that she always wore on a leather strap. Sarah, can of Axe in hand, lit the lighter and sprayed the Phoenix at Seifer through the flame. The result was hilarious: Seifer, the toughest guy for thirty miles at least, running around the Sandlot with his trenchcoat on fire, screaming bloody murder and crying like a baby. Hayner and Pence had laughed until they peed, and while Olette didn't approve of it and scolded her pretty harshly afterwards, Sarah was positive she had been laughing too. Ever since then Seifer's troop had given them a wide berth, and Sarah "The Pyro Witch" had become Twilight Town's Robin Hood. Sarah smiled her crooked psycho grin, a sight to frighten small children. Ah, Phoenix smelled so much better when it was laced with fear and burning cloth. Good times, good times.

Then her eyes wandered back to her sketchbook. Usually she drew surreal landscapes and creatures, like that funny little guy in the white jumpsuit she drew yesterday: the one that jumped out of the produce section in the supermarket and scared the living crap out of her. Today though, it was a person. He was a bit short, with dark-ish blue hair combed a bit to the side so it hung over his deep purple eyes. Despite their darkness, though, they were radiant with joy. He was standing in front of a comely little house in a borough somewhere, and there was some sort of strange castle in the background. There may have been people in the house, but she couldn't remember their faces. All around, there were flowers and plant life, and even though it was just a picture you could almost hear the cool breeze rustling the leaves and reel the sun warming your face. It was a beautiful place…radiant even…

"So, what's his name?" Olette planted her finger squarely on the boy's nose. Sarah thought for a moment.

"…Ienzo. His name was Ienzo."

"Heh, that's a weird name. Wait, what do you mean 'was'?"

"Well, it was Ienzo _then_. I don't think that's his name anymore. It's…something else…but it's very similar to Ienzo. I think he's forgotten his real name."

"…Did you maybe…meet him somewhere?"

"I must have. Otherwise, how would I know that, right?" Sarah smiled. The whole conversation was ridiculous, and she was spouting nonsense again, as usual, but Olette seemed to be able to interpret her nonsense, so everything worked. Just then, a volleyball moving at high speeds nearly collided with Sara's head. Hayner shouted apologies from halfway down the beach and Pence jogged over to reclaim the ball.

"We should probably get going if we want to get that ice cream before the candy shop closes!" her chubby friend panted. Olette jumped up.

"Ohmigosh! I totally forgot about that! C'mon, we gotta move; it's almost seven!" And she took off, Hayner right beside her and Pence struggling to keep up. Sarah packed her things into her little Invader Zim messenger bag and followed in their wake, stopping only once to admire the setting sun and marvel at how well she could draw flowers she had never seen before.

Later, the gang sat atop the Twilight Train Station Tower, happily licking up every last salty-sweet drop of their Sea Salt Ice Cream. All was quiet except for the steady ticking of the giant clock behind them and the loud slurping of sugary goodness (squee!). Then, Hayner broke the silence:

"Hey, Sarah, do one of your fire tricks! You know, like the one you did in the tram common yesterday!"

"What, the one where I made the dragon out of fire, or the one where I wrote stuff in the sky?"

"Do the sky-writing one. That'd be so neat to see from up here!" Pence pointed with an ice-cream covered hand:

"It'd be even cooler to see it from down there!" Sarah peered at where Pence had indicated: it was the Sandlot. And, didn't it just figure, there were three people casually lounging on the wooden benches there. Sarah's face broke into her hideously creepy lopsided grin.

"I know just what to write."

She sprayed a bit of Phoenix, which she now always carried with her, and set it ablaze with her lucky lighter. (Stupid people: **DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!** Thank you! – X-FlurryOfDancingFlames-X) It sparked and cracked cheerily, as though it were happy to see her. Fire never burned her, for some reason she couldn't guess, and if there was fire around her she could control it with her mind and make it do nearly impossible things. Today, the flames leapt from her fingers as she waved them and hung, suspended, in the air, and for a few minutes it blazed in huge letters in the clear sky:

I'M COMING FOR YOU SEIFER!

Pence and Hayner spat out their ice cream, nearly chocking, and laughed hysterically between pained gasps for air. Olette glared at her for a moment, but couldn't help but giggle at the high-pitched shriek that reached their ears all the way from the Sandlot as a Tall boy in a white coat ran so fast out of the Sandlot he seemed to be flying. A few minutes later the fire fizzled out, leaving a haunting echo of her words to float away in smoke, leaving for their enjoyment the scent of Phoenix ablaze, a sweet combination of musk and ashes, cooked very well done. Once they stopped throwing up, Hayner and Pence wasted no time congratulating her on another job well done, Robin Hood, how the _hell_ do you do that?

"I dunno. I've been able to do that for a while. I think my brother taught me." Hayner raised an eyebrow.

"Brother? Who, and where, is this mysterious brother you never introduced me to?"

"…Did I say brother?...hmm…I don't remember. Maybe I do have a brother." Olette leaned over a little.

"Maybe that's the boy you drew, Pierre or whatever his name was." Hayner snickered.

"It was Ienzo" Hayner snickered louder, and Pence politely put his hand over his mouth. Olette looked, a bit puzzled.

"You used 'was', again. If it's not Ienzo, what's his name now?"

"I dunno. Neither does he, I think. He thinks his new name's his real one, but it's not." Sarah stood up. "Just like me. My name isn't really Sarah. I can't remember what it is, but I'm so sure it's not Sarah. It sounded something like it, though." Olette stared off into the sun and Pence licked the last remnants of ice cream off of the popsicle stick. Below, a burnt-orange train carried a few visitors into the station on the stone tracks that wound their way across the canal to Sunset Station, and right into the Sunset Terrace.

"So, you don't remember which train it was that brought you here?" Hayner asked, watching a few people from the Terrace enter the station below to go home.

"Erm…it was bright blue. And it had stars all over it."

"Never seen a train like that around here. You sure?" Pence looked at her skeptically.

"Positively positive."

"Hmm…well, I guess it doesn't matter right now. What we do have to worry about is what Dr. Ballester's going to do to us if we don't have our Independent Studies report done for school." Hayner groaned, and made no effort to conceal it.

"Aww, Pence, did you have to bring that up? I had almost forgotten about it!"

"We'd better get it done soon; there's only three days of summer vacation left!" Olette jumped up in alarm. "Gosh, we don't even have a topic yet! What are we gonna do?"

There was complete silence for a moment, and then Pence had one of his occasional sparks of genius.

"You know, in addition to Sarah's ghost train, there have been a couple of weird rumors going around town. Maybe we could do our report on them! I know one of 'em already." Hayner thumped his friend so hard on the back that he nearly knocked him clear off the Station tower.

"Pence, my man, that is **brilliant**! Tell us that rumor!"

"Well, you know the steps at the Sunset Station? We use 'em almost everyday without even thinking about it! The weird thing is, they say they count different going up and down."

"Seriously!"

"That's what I heard. There're a few others floating around, too. It's like, 'The Seven Wonders of Twilight Town!'"

"Man, I gotta see 'em!" Hayner let out a colossal yawn. "Well, maybe it can wait 'til tomorrow. All that butt-kicking: man, I'm exhausted!" Pence glared at him…or at least, he screwed up his face into some semblance of a glare. It was a very amusing sight.

"You did not kick my butt, you filthy cheater."

"I _so_ kicked you butt, my man. You really gotta practice more!"

"You did not."

"Did too."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

Olette threw up hands in a 'Why me?' gesture, rolling her eyes, and Sarah chuckled softly to herself. No, things weren't going to change around here for a good long time. Nobody was growing up anytime soon, and she couldn't be more pleased by it.

On the way home, Sarah just had to ask:

"There's really no blue train in the Sunset Station?"

"Nope. All the trains in and out of both stations are that ugly orange color. They'd look so much nicer in a pastel color, like a light blue, or even a silver-ish, don't you think?"

"Mmm. Alright. Maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Maybe it was orange."

"You don't really mean that. You know it was blue."

"Huh? But you just said- "

"I know, but…I believe you. And if you believe that a blue train with stars all over it, so do I."

"Even though you **know** there's no such train?"

"Yes, because you saw it. And I can't imagine why on earth you'd concoct such a terrible lie."

"You trust me that much? Even though you've only known me a little over two months and I pretty much just barged into your life, with no idea of who I am? I could be a wanted criminal!"

"That's what friends do. They care about each other, and even if you are a wanted criminal, Hayner, Pence, and I would stand in front of a jury and swear up and down that you're innocent. We'd go to the moon for you, no matter what the opposition. That's what a friend does. That's what it means to have a heart, and you have a wonderful heart, Sarah."

"…"

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Hey, you know what?'

"What?'

"Thanks. And I promise, even if I do remember everything and I am a wanted criminal and I end up going somewhere far away, I'll come back to you guys. No matter what."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"Good. Now you can come help me straighten my hair!" Olette laughed and pushed open the front door, smiling her dazzling sunny smile. Sarah smiled too, and on some very deep level she wished as hard as she could that she never had to leave, never had to remember, and could stay here with her friends forever and ever, even though her heart screamed out in protest.

The front door closed, and somewhere in the darkness in the alley across the street, a black cloaked figure tore his sea-green eyes away from the two girls and disappeared into the shadows.

X---x---X

The lab was blindingly bright, the walls and floor undistinguishable from each other. Even if you stared intently it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. In fact, it seemed not to have any dimensions at all, like being inside a large white cloud. Computer projected data hung in the air, numbers rapidly increasing and decreasing floated by lazily and bar graphs wildly fluctuated in neon green against the pristine white. In what seemed to be the center of the room there stood a waist high monitor (also white), before which stood a black stain on the pale background. It was a very tall man in a black hooded coat, the hood pulled back so that his long jagged blue hair could hang loose. He watched the data on the monitor intently, but somewhat absently, as though he was seeing not the numbers but _through_ the numbers: seeing something else, something known only to him. And before both the man and the monitor sat the grandest thing in the room: a huge metal flower bud, twice the size of the man at least (and he must be at least six feet tall!), silvery-blue in color and cold to gaze upon, the floor around which was illuminated with rings of neon-green light strips.

Another man in a similar black coat, his faced obscured by the hood, appeared in a swirl of darkness, a rude interruption to the silent serenity of the room, just as swiftly as he had disappeared from the shadows in the back alley.

"Status report?" the blue-haired man murmured, without turning to face the newcomer.

"System seems stable enough. There are a few bugs, though: the train, for one. Why hasn't anyone wiped that yet?"

"Zexion did not think it important. There is no need to go pulling apart her memories if we do not have to. That can cause…problems."

"And God forbid anything happens to Zexion's little lab rat. Explain to me again why we're holding the broad here?"

"Because, O Blunt One, Zexion requested it. And a request from Zexion is as good as an order from Xemnas. Is that clear?" The blue-haired man's voice sharpened to an icy edge. The blunt one took a step back, shaking his hands.

"Whoa, hey; no offense or anything. I just wanna know why I gotta give up my time playing Paper Mario to go running around after some broad in a computer program."

"Because, Axel, your last little slip-up nearly caused the program to crash. Surely you haven't forgotten the Supermarket Incident?"

Oh boy, what a mess that had been. One of the Dusks under his supervision had run off and hid in the broccoli stand in the supermarket, and when the kid walked past, it went nuts and started jumping around the produce section. Axel sighed, pulling off his hood and letting his spiky red hair breathe in the almost disgustingly sterile air of the lab.

"You're gonna hold that against me forever, aren't you?"

"At least until you redeem yourself. And…perhaps a while afterwards, yes." Well, at least he was honest, but that didn't stop Axel's sea-green eyes from trying to bore a hole in the man's back. That was the most you could ask for around here: honesty. Nobody's couldn't feel sorrow, or regret, or pity, or any of than nonsense, after all.

"Right, right. Well, everything seems ok. She's remembering a bit, but not enough to get your Victoria's Secret panties in a knot."

"Good," the other man continued, clearly ignoring the insult to his manliness. "The less she meddles with us, the smoother and faster things will run."

"Fine, so I can go play Mario now?"

"Yes, please go. And take that obnoxious attitude of yours with you." Axel moved to throw a chakram at the man's head, but thought better of it. Saïx was constantly sucking up to Xemnas, the head man, and Xemnas would **not** be happy if one of his little friggin' puppy dogs had a chakram sticking out of his skull. But damn…for somebody who couldn't feel emotion, Saïx always knew just how to piss him off.

Axel sauntered out of the lab, being sure to make as many incredibly childish faces at Saïx's back as was humanly (inhumanly?) possible while doing so. He was greeted by a long hallway of silver metal, carved into the walls of which every few feet was an upside-down heart shape with several chunks taken out of it. A cold blast of what would be air if this place had an atmosphere ruffled his hair slightly as the pneumatic door slid shut behind him.

"How is she?" a voice asked, belonging to yet another black-clad figure, who stood motionless staring out of a window that had no glass. Axel walked over to him, jumping up onto the sill.

"Seems ok. She's alive, at least, and relatively happy."

"Hmm." Silence between them, awkward for all its normality.

"She misses you, Zexion." When this got no reaction from his companion, Axel decided to try again. "I did a search for that woman in Hollow Bastion, the one you asked about? The one you casually neglected to mention was your Other's mother." Axel stopped to examine his nails, although he couldn't honestly care less about how they looked. "Well, that whole district was overrun by the Heartless way back when, as you suspected." Still nothing. "Oh come on, Zex. You're the only family she's got left! Don't you think this is just a little-" Zexion pivoted on heel and walked away from his associate, and the lab.

"No, Axel. I don't think it's cruel, or harsh, or cold, or any of the other things you think it is. I think it's necessary. And I think you're thinking about it too much. Perhaps you've spent too much time in the Encephalon. Take a break." He began to walk away, but stopped.

"And don't ever call me 'Zex' again."

Zexion ignored the snickers behind him, and didn't stop walking until he had come full-circle back to the lab an hour later, until once again he found himself staring at the motionless body of his sister hanging in the cryogenic pod. Nobodies didn't have hearts, but that didn't mean they couldn't feel, and Zexion had learned that Nobodies were capable of a wide range of emotions, even if they couldn't recognize them. Now, acting perhaps under the influence of the heart he didn't have, or perhaps one of the alien life forces Demyx was so terrified of, his hand was once again pressed to the cold glass and steel, the closest he could come to his only surviving relative without putting the entire Organization in jeopardy.

"Please forgive me. I'm so sorry…Seraphim."

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Ok, I'm gonna end it there before all the anti-emo people start throwing things at me. PLEASE, PLEASEDEAR GODREVIEW! Otherwise the story may never progress past this point, and where's thefun in that, right! Thankies! 


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